Two's Company, Five's A Crowd

Over the past few days, we got a chance to work with our first Japanese high school students. About 60-70 students from Oita Higashi High School signed up for a summer seminar to improve their English skills and we were invited to help. It was held at the Marine Culture Center in Kamae, in the southern part of Oita Prefecture. It was really a beautiful place, complete with palm trees and a great little bay.



The ALTs (that’s what we are...Assistant Language Teachers) were split up into groups of two or three and given a group of about 10 Japanese students to work with for the duration of the camp. Tori and I were paired with a returning ALT named Justin. It was fun...I don’t really feel like I have a whole lot to say about the seminar, but I had a good time. It was good to work with some students...get sort of a feel for what we’ll be doing. But, more importantly, it was a great opportunity to bond with some of the other ALTs that we’ll be working with in the future. We were put up in bunks with 5 or 6 ALTs per room...and we had a couple of little parties to get to know each other. Phil was along for the camp as well, and I got to know a couple of his friends that he likes to talk about...and we met a few newbies, too. It’s really been cool getting to know people from other countries. We’ve got Angelo from Portugal, Tamara from Scotland, Sheena from India, Piotr (or Poitr or Potior or something...but pronounced Peter) from New Zealand, and Will from England. It’s interesting that we’re in Japan to work with Japanese people...but we get to know people from all over the world.



Yesterday morning, a typhoon rolled in and kicked us out of the Marine Center early in the day. All of the leaders were making a big fuss about it...like we were all going to die on account of a little bit of rain and a slight breeze...and the trains were shutting down for fear of being derailed. It’s becoming quite apparent that the Japanese are a fairly cautious people. I probably only say this, though, because I haven’t yet seen a powerful typhoon. I like to think that they’re usually a bit more severe than this. That, and we don’t have a TV or Internet or anything, so we’re not really connected to the news. 1,000 people could have died in a neighboring town from the typhoon and we’d never even know. it’s actually getting a bit irritating. Hopefully we’ll be connected soon.

Phil had stayed at our place on Tuesday night before the seminar and wanted to spend some more time in Oita last night, so we gave him a spot on our floor again. Naoko was also coming in to Oita to visit us all (and her friend Kelsey), so we gave her a spot on the floor, too. On top of that...due to the typhoon, Will was stranded in Oita for the night. So, we offered him a place to stay. Five people in our little, tiny apartment. It was actually a lot of fun.
Before Naoko got to Oita, we went into town to do a little bit of shopping and get some dinner. We met up with Christina (from Tennessee) and Rachel (from New Zealand) and went to a little restaurant in the middle of downtown Oita. It was really good food...and not a bad price either. For the people who were drinking beer, the whole meal cost about $25 a piece, and for Tori and I...it only ended up being about $12 each. Tom (from the U.K.) showed up after a while and joined us, too.

Naoko got into Oita at around 10:00 and we went to the station to pick her up. It was good to have her and Phil back together in the same place at the same time. It’s been a while since I’ve hung out with the two of them. After nabbing some McDonalds for her, we headed out to a karaoke place and hung out for about an hour and a half. I can see why karaoke is more popular here than it is in the U.S. In the U.S. karaoke is really intimidating...it’s just one person up on a big, empty stage with the lights shining on them. But here, you rent out a little, private room with couches and a table...and you all just sit around and sing together. Of course there are microphones, but the people who are using them aren’t really highlighted...they just happen to be holding the mic. You can also borrow tambourines for those songs you don’t know, so everyone can always be involved. It’s actually really cool...and their catalogues are absolutely enormous. Pretty much any karaoke-worthy song is there...and in English.

After we finished there, we nabbed a couple of taxis and headed back to Tsurusaki. The last trains leaves Oita at 11:00 and we didn’t finish karaoke until about 12:15. Tom had assured us that it wouldn’t cost any more that about 1250 yen for the taxi back, but...he lied! It ended up being 2880 yen (as opposed to the 220 yen per person we pay for the train). So, yeah...we kind of decided last night that any time we come to Oita...unless it’s a REALLY special occasion...we’re leaving by 11:00. It was a good experience to take a taxi, though. Tori, Will, and I were in one cab, and I did most of the talking to the driver. It kind of amazes me sometimes how much Japanese I can actually speak. When I’m around someone who speaks fairly fluently...I just let them do the talking. But when there’s no crutch to lean on, I feel like I can actually get around fairly well. I’m entirely impressed with how much Tori can speak, too. She hasn’t studied much Japanese, but I feel like I could drop her in the middle of nowhere and somehow she’d still get by just fine. I’d never do that, of course, but...it’s good to know that if I had to, she’d be alright.

On an unrelated note...I feel like I’m getting homesick every once in a while. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that we are SO DAMNED UNCONNECTED. It will be nice to get our cell phones next week...and the Internet in early September. Hopefully that will help.

Until next time...

Home Sweet Air-Conditioned Home

I apologize in advance for the orientation of the pictures...I'm running out of time and this isn't the most sophisticated blog editor. :(











































Since I last made an entry in my blog, our life here in Tsurusaki has DRASTICALLY improved, thanks in large part to the servicemen from Best Denki. Our new air conditioning unit works like a charm. We’re sleeping peacefully in a temperature controlled environment, with the windows closed and the curtains pulled tight. It’s been nice to finally be able to relax in our own home. AND with all that cool air blowing through, we’ve been able to clean up a bit, do our laundry, and cook meals! Nice, yeah? On our little trip to Oita the other day, we also stopped into a 100-yen shop to pick up a few things for our apartments. We got dish towels, air fresheners, a laundry basket, garbage cans, slippers, towel rods, tupperware, ziploc bags, hangers, and much more...all kinds of good stuff...and we only spent about $30! 100-yen shops are amazing here...much better than the Dollar Tree back home. This one was 5 floors, each packed to the brim with all kinds of useful junk.






Our jobs as office-weasels have also started to take shape. My 30-minute bike ride in the sweltering heat of the morning doesn’t seem so bad as long as I pack my sweat towel (which, by the way, is totally socially acceptable here...even kind of expected). The only tricky bit is the steep hill at the end. Even the kids have to get off their bikes and push. I hiked in behind a student this morning and he was huffing and puffing...so I don’t feel like such a wuss. My supervisor--along with basically every other teacher at the school--has been out on vacation these last two days. Yesterday it was just the Vice Principal and myself here. I sat at my desk and worked on lesson plans...and he started washing windows at around 8:15. I offered to help him, but he told me, “No, no. This is my hobby.” Apparently he enjoys it quite a lot, too...’cause he kept going for (I kid you not) five hours. He was dressed in khaki pants, a bright yellow t-shirt, and for the majority of the day, had a towel tied around his head. During the time that he wasn’t crawling around on the counters washing windows, he had his bare feet propped up on his desk while he listened to music on his laptop. I’m still trying to figure out what the dress code is here, but it seems pretty casual. That should be good for me. I don’t like ties...but I love towels.

He ended up calling my supervisor at around 12:30 and telling me to go home since nobody was here and there was really nothing to do. But...I stayed and worked until about 2:00 (when they finally turned on the AC) so I wouldn’t look like I was too eager to get out of here. I also missed lunch yesterday on account of I didn’t know where to eat. I had leftover curry stashed in one of my desk drawers, but I wasn’t sure if it was kosher to eat at my desk. So...instead of asking the VP (whose English is...“maybe not so good”), I just waited until I got home. (I did ask him in Japanese before I left, though, and he said everybody eats at their desks, so...good for me)

I’m typing this blog entry at work, by the way...I’ve been here for over an hour now, and there’s still nobody else in the office.

You can tell how busy I am by how clean my desk is...




but we’re not all so tidy here in the land of the rising sun. Check out my neighbor. Eeesh...I’d hate to have his job.



Anyhoo...after work Tori and her supervisor, Watanabe-sensei, were waiting for me in our apartment so that we could go back to Best Denki and apply for Internet service. We applied for an account with Yahoo! BroadBand, but we’re not sure whether or not we’ll get it yet. It’s kind of a tricky situation right now...we still don’t have our Alien Registration Cards (and won’t until at least the 24th...maybe not until after the 31st), so we can’t get cell phones and we may not be able to get the Internet. Even if Yahoo!BB accepts us, we’ll have to wait 3 weeks for the modem to be sent to our apartment. So...it looks like we’ll be going to Starbucks for a little while longer.

I realize y’all haven’t really seen any pictures of our town, so last night we walked around with the intent of taking some pictures of our city, but didn’t end up with a whole lot. We got a shot of the super market (called Marushokku) just a block from our house.







We got some novelty tourist shots of us eating the window displays.


We got some photos of the vending machines right across the street from our apartment.


And, most importantly, we got some photos with a kooky old man we met on the street. As he was passing, he caught our eye and we said “Konbanwa.” That, as it turned out, may have been a mistake. We thought it was Japanese for “Good evening,” but apparently it really means “Hey, we’re fluent in Japanese and we really want to hear your life story. Could you please stay here and tell us about yourself for no less than 15 minutes?”

The dude talked our ear off...but we couldn’t understand hardly anything he was saying. He was talking at light-speed and WOULD NOT STOP. About a minute into the conversation, he whipped out a copy of the Asahi Shinbun (one of the more popular Japanese newspapers) and there he was on the cover! We think he’s either 85...or he’s been teaching for 85 years...or he’s the oldest man alive or something. But...I DO know he got to meet the Prime Minister...and um...he’s the number one something. Also, he started studying English three years ago, so he can understand a word or two.


I don’t think he had any idea that we didn’t know what was going on. Every sentence ended in “desu ne” which is kind of a plea for confirmation...so we just kept nodding and saying, “Hai. Hai. Hai.” For the middle ten minutes, Tori and I couldn’t stop laughing.

Hell, we didn’t even TRY to stop laughing. He was just so excited to be talking to us, he could hardly contain himself.

Toward the end of the conversation, it stopped being funny and we just wanted to know if it would ever end. A few people passed by and gave us surprised/sympathetic looks, but nobody rescued us. He was blown away with how tall I was (compared to him), so we took a photo...then he gave us his business card and started to walk away. FREEDOM!! Wrong. He came back not two seconds later! This time he just wanted us to sign his card, though. I think he wanted our address, too, but I told him I couldn’t remember it, so that was the end of that. For the rest of the night, we kept our eyes away from passers-by.

Today in the office has been almost entirely uneventful (It’s now 1:00 and I’ve been here for 5 hours). I did, however, get to meet Messy Desk Man. His name is Naoki Hyoudo and he’s one of my English teachers (for simplicity’s sake, though...we’ll just keep calling him Messy Desk Man). Surprisingly, his English wasn’t all that good. He stayed for...maybe 5 minutes, then left. As did all 3 of the other teachers who have come in today.

In other news...I just met another one of the teachers. His name is Kazuyuki Uesugi and he works for the Architecture Department. His English is basically non-existent, so we just struggled through a short conversation in Japanese...him trying to dumb things down a bit, me fighting to find a few words. But...it was worth it. I think he really appreciated the effort.

By the by...here's a picture of our city in the daytime...taken from my school.


We’re going to be at a summer camp for the next 3 days and may not be able to write again until we get back. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that they have Internet access, though. It’d be nice to not have to sit in Starbucks to check my email and update my blog.

Until next time...